The Blue Dog map is changing. It may even help Democrats win Republican districts.

Blue Dogs are often dismissed as a dying breed of Democrat. Fiscally conservative, socially moderate and built from the ashes of former Dixiecrats, Blue Dogs have struggled in recent years to find a home in the Democratic Party. Not to mention, they’ve suffered staggering blows to membership. After the 2010 midterm elections, they lost more than half their members, and now, with only 18 members, they still haven’t fully recovered.

But in the wake of the 2016 election, Blue Dogs have rediscovered their bark — and are clamoring for a larger voice in the Democratic Party. Right now, less than 10 percent of House Democrats are Blue Dogs — but they’re an increasingly important minority in conservative areas of the country where Democrats have lost ground. They might even help Democrats regain a House majority in 2018.

Democrats picked up six House seats in November — and four of them went to Blue Dog Democrats.

The 2016 election didn’t offer Democrats a lot of bright spots, but they did gain six seats in the House. What’s more, two seats — New Jersey’s 5th and New Hampshire’s 1st — came from districts that voted for President Donald Trump. But of the six seats Democrats won, four of the representatives caucus with the Blue Dogs — a more conservative faction of the party.

Stephanie Murphy(Fla.-7)

Charlie Crist(Fla.-13)

Brad Schneider(Ill.-10)

Josh Gottheimer(N.J.-5)

Ruben Kihuen(Nev.-4)

Carol Shea-Porter(N.H.-1)

Where Blue Dogs hail from has changed

Originally, Blue Dogs were primarily concentrated in the South, but over the years their influence has spread farther West and even into parts of the Midwest and Northeast.

SOURCE: Blue Dog Coalition

But Blue Dogs aren’t the only nontraditional Democrats in town.

Founded two years after the Blue Dogs in 1997, the more centrist and socially liberal New Democrat Coalition has surpassed Blue Dog membership in recent years. The New Democrat Coalition currently boasts 61 members compared with the Blue Dogs’ 18 members and makes up nearly a third of all House Democrats’ seats.